Techin' Geek

Finnish unicorn IQM has today revealed its intention to become publicly traded through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), assessing the company’s worth at around $1.8 billion. This initiative will permit IQM to join the expanding group of quantum computing firms on U.S. financial markets. 

Established in 2018 as a spinoff from Aalto University and VTT Technical Research in Finland, IQM specializes in both onsite full-stack quantum computers and a cloud solution for accessing its systems, catering to clients from academic and corporate laboratories globally.

Publicly listed quantum firms have experienced a significant increase in their share prices in recent months, driven by indications from governments and major tech companies that the “quantum advantage” over traditional supercomputers might soon be attainable. This has encouraged proponents to reaffirm their belief that the sector will soon yield profitable real-world applications in life sciences, new materials, and beyond.

Becoming public will afford IQM a longer timeframe to advance its commercial strategies. The company reported $35 million in revenue for 2025 and over $100 million in contractual agreements. Following this transaction, its cash reserves will surpass $450 million. However, the company’s market cap may fluctuate based on the evolving interest of investors in quantum equities when trading commences.

With practical industrial uses still several years away, uncertainties linger regarding the sustainability of the current excitement in the quantum sector. These concerns are amplified as the majority of these enterprises have opted for public offerings via SPACs — a quicker method compared to standard IPOs that peaked in 2021, leaving many investors with losses.

Notwithstanding this unpleasant residue, quantum SPACs have regained appeal. Earlier this month, neutral-atom quantum company Infleqtion made a splash on its debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) through a SPAC, while Canadian firm Xanadu Quantum Technologies is set to go public via a SPAC on the Nasdaq by the end of March. 

Now, IQM is set to follow their lead but is contemplating entering the public markets on both a U.S. and Nordic exchange. In the United States, it may become public on either the Nasdaq or the NYSE — the blank check company involved is Nasdaq-listed Real Asset Acquisition Corp., but as a foreign entity, it will issue American Depositary Shares, with the listing awaiting approval.

As per Crunchbase, IQM has secured approximately $569.1 million to date. Its most recent funding phase was a $320 million Series B led by U.S. investment group Ten Eleven Ventures, with contributions from Finnish investment company Tesi, Schwarz Group, Winbond Electronics Corporation, EIC, Bayern Kapital, and World Fund.

In February 2021, the software behemoth Ivanti uncovered that hackers from China had infiltrated the network of Pulse Secure, one of its subsidiaries providing VPN devices to numerous businesses and government entities globally, as per new insights from Bloomberg.

The attackers took advantage of a covert backdoor embedded in Pulse Secure’s VPN software, Bloomberg stated, referencing Ivanti’s chief security officer at the time along with other sources. This backdoor facilitated the hackers’ access to 119 other unnamed entities that utilized the same VPN offering from the company.

Mandiant was reportedly cognizant of the breaches as well, notifying Ivanti that hackers had exploited the vulnerability to breach defense contractors in Europe and the United States. 

The previously unreported intrusion highlights how acquisitions, workforce reductions, and cost-cutting measures initiated by private equity firms compromised the integrity and security of Ivanti’s essential technologies. After the private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group purchased Ivanti in 2017, Bloomberg reported subsequent rounds of layoffs — particularly in 2022 — impacting employees with extensive knowledge of the company’s products and their security.

Ivanti and Mandiant did not reply to a request for comment. 

The findings from Bloomberg resonate with prior reports regarding competing provider of remote access solutions, Citrix, which faced significant layoffs after a 2022 acquisition by Elliott Investment Management and Vista Equity Partners. Similar to Ivanti, Citrix has encountered various cybersecurity issues and critical vulnerabilities in recent times. 

Since then, Ivanti’s VPN solutions have been implicated in at least two other notable attacks.

In early 2024, the U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA mandated all federal institutions to disconnect their Ivanti VPN devices within two days because hackers were actively exploiting vulnerabilities that Ivanti was unaware of at the time. Ivanti also cautioned customers last year that hackers were leveraging another significant flaw in its Connect Secure product to breach corporate clients.

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Each year, Disrupt gathers over 10,000 founders, tech leaders, and VCs at San Francisco’s Moscone West. From October 13–15, you’ll acquire significant insights and tailored networking opportunities aimed at advancing your startup journey, boosting your career, or enhancing your portfolio.

Key takeaways from today’s tech visionaries

Last year, Disrupt hosted over 200 on-stage discussions featuring more than 250 prominent figures in the tech scene. Look for the same caliber of open and impactful discussions this year. 2025 highlights included: 

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On Sunday, a research group known as Citrini Research released a notable report depicting how agentic AI could lead to widespread economic turmoil within the next two years. The envisioned scenario presents a report from two years down the line, indicating that unemployment has increased twofold, and the overall value of the stock market has plummeted by over a third. As expressed in the report:

AI capabilities grew stronger, companies required fewer employees, layoffs in the white-collar sector escalated, displaced workers cut back on spending, margin pressures pushed firms to invest further in AI, AI capabilities grew stronger…

This set off a negative feedback loop with no natural stopping mechanism…The system evolved into a continuous daisy chain of interrelated bets on white-collar productivity enhancement. 

This represents a novel type of bearish outlook, concentrating not on misalignment akin to Skynet but rather on the gradual unraveling of the economy itself. Specifically, the Citrini forecast examines the consequences of embedding AI agents into the broader economy, and the ramifications when external contractors are supplanted by less expensive in-house AI. It bears similarities to the Death of SaaS scenario, yet Citrini extends the argument, implicating any business model focused on optimizing transactions among businesses.

As anticipated, the report is generating significant buzz online. Not everyone concurs with its conclusions — even Citrini refers to it more as a scenario than a definitive forecast — but identifying the exact moment when the scenario falters is a challenge.

Personally, I have doubts about whether companies are prepared to delegate purchasing decisions to AI agents, regardless of their sophistication. However, in Citrini’s scenario, many of the affected decisions have already been entrusted to third-party contractors, making it less improbable than it appears.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is summoning Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei to the Pentagon on Tuesday morning to talk about the military application of Claude, as reported by Axios.

This gathering occurs as the Pentagon threatens to label Anthropic as a “supply chain risk” — a tag usually designated for foreign threats — following the AI company’s decision to deny the Department of Defense access to its technology for extensive surveillance of Americans and the creation of autonomous weaponry. 

Last summer, Anthropic entered into a $200 million agreement with the DOD, and Claude was allegedly utilized in the January 3 special operations mission that led to the detainment of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, an incident that highlighted the rising tensions between the two parties.

A source informed Axios that Hegseth is presenting Amodei with an ultimatum: cooperate or face exclusion. It’s uncertain if he is bluffing — replacing Anthropic would be a considerable challenge. However, the implications are serious: a supply chain risk classification would nullify Anthropic’s contract and compel other Pentagon affiliates to completely abandon Claude.

The AI-driven dictation company Wispr Flow has introduced its Android application today. Initially, the app was made available for Mac and Windows, followed by its iOS launch in June 2025.

On iOS, Wispr Flow allowed users to utilize a specialized keyboard. On the Android platform, the user interface differs slightly, featuring a floating bubble to access the dictionary. Users can hold the bubble to dictate, tap once to begin, and then tap the close button to end the dictation. Similar to other platforms, the app not only provides dictation but also removes filler words and formats the text based on the app’s context and the spoken material.

“Android finally provided us the opportunity to create the voice experience we had always envisioned. Only when the platform is unobtrusive can we genuinely anticipate voice replacing typing on mobile,” stated Tanay Kothari, co-founder and CEO of the startup.

The app supports translation in more than 100 languages and operates seamlessly across other applications. With the Android application launch, Wispr Flow announced an infrastructure overhaul, enhancing dictation speed by 30% compared to earlier versions.

Despite the multitude of AI-driven dictation applications present for desktop and iOS, Wispr Flow is among the few that have launched on Android, joining Typeless, which released its app for the platform last month.

Additionally, the company has introduced a new model for Hinglish, a blend of Hindi and English, aimed at individuals in India who communicate in a mixed language style.

“As someone who often mixes English and Hindi when conversing with family and colleagues back home, I felt compelled to create something for myself: the first voice model geared towards transcription in Hinglish rather than conventional Hindi script,” Kothari expressed.

The company highlighted that even with a preliminary rollout to a limited user base, there have been over 1.3 million words spoken in English by users in recent days.

Wispr Flow has emerged as one of the leading startups in the sector of AI-driven dictation applications, garnering considerable attention from venture capitalists. In June, the startup secured $30 million in funding led by Menlo Ventures, followed by an additional $25 million in November from a round headed by Notable Capital. In total, Wispr Flow has raised $81 million, with its latest valuation reported at $700 million, according to sources.

Apple has summoned the technology media to a “unique Apple experience” on March 4, though it may proceed somewhat differently from the company’s typical press conference.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, rather than unveiling everything in a single keynote, Apple intends to execute a “three-day barrage of announcements” — likely revealed online, culminating in the March 4 “experience” featuring three events in New York, London, and Shanghai, offering the press an opportunity to engage with the forthcoming products.

Similarly, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber hypothesized that the experience might be “a hands-on event with live demonstrations.”

Reports indicate that Apple will be unveiling at least five new products during this period, including an affordable MacBook. Other potential products include: the iPhone 17e, an iPad Air equipped with an M4 chip, a new basic iPad, as well as refreshed MacBook Air and new MacBook Pro models. Gurman mentioned that all these items are expected to launch this spring, although he seemed less confident about the timing of each announcement.

This week, we focused on online creators and their revenue models after famous YouTuber MrBeast revealed that he is acquiring fintech startup Step, coinciding with Hollywood studios dispatching a barrage of cease-and-desist notices to ByteDance over the introduction of its new video generation tool, Seedance 2.0.

These seemingly unrelated stories indicate a media environment undergoing significant transformation, as well-known YouTubers seek to broaden their business strategies amid the looming threat and potential of potent generative AI capabilities.

In the most recent episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Rebecca Bellan, and I discussed the future of the creator economy and whether new creators will have opportunities to differentiate themselves.

“What’s the next saturation point?” Kirsten pondered. “Not everyone can go out and develop products. Will the number of successful creators simply diminish? Or will technological advancements or new platforms emerge that could help them find audiences to monetize?”

You can find a condensed version of our discussion, revised for brevity and clarity, below.

Anthony: [The news] inspired our colleague Lauren to craft an insightful piece about the creator business model as a whole, highlighting the fact that creators are no longer solely dependent on ad revenue. While it still constitutes a significant portion of their earnings, she outlined a variety of leading YouTubers, noting their expansion — generally into e-commerce but also into diverse revenue channels.

For instance, MrBeast has his own range of food products, including chocolate, generating hundreds of millions in revenue and became profitable in 2024, even as his media enterprise suffered losses. That was quite intriguing to me.

Kirsten: If Mr. Beast can’t achieve profitability with his media venture, who can? I found that statistic astonishing.

I’m not surprised that the entire ad revenue model isn’t functioning optimally for creators and influencers because it has reached a saturation level. My main question is, what will the next saturation point be? Not all of these individuals can venture out and create products. Therefore, does the pool of successful creators simply shrink? Or will new developments occur, technology-wise or through different media, enabling them to capture an audience to monetize?

Rebecca: It’s fascinating; there are numerous possibilities for what may arise, right? Perhaps they’ll construct digital avatars of themselves and place these avatars into various scenarios to generate income in different ways.

Yet again, it’s unsurprising; these individuals are now celebrities, right? Someone recently told me that many in the younger generation do not recognize our traditional celebrities, but they are familiar with TikTok stars. For years, celebrities have been promoting products and making money from that, right? I remember watching Rachel [Ray], a superstar chef who marketed her EVOO or extra virgin olive oil.

We had Slow Ventures on [Equity] about a year ago. They have established a creator fund where they’ve essentially formed a VC fund to support creators with their businesses, particularly those with niche followings, say someone passionate about woodworking and offering a line of chisels, who knows.

I find this an intriguing forward path, and it’s something we observe as journalists: How do we also attempt to be creators and establish our brand that could diversify our earnings? Admitting that sounds rather unpleasant.

Anthony: I’m smiling, but it’s a smile of someone whose spirit is gradually disintegrating inside.

We paused our AI discussions, but I must inevitably reintroduce AI into the conversation. Obviously, a related development over the past week is that ByteDance, the Chinese entity behind TikTok and an ongoing backer — but we won’t delve into that — launched a new iteration of its model, Seedance 2.0, which was primarily available to Chinese users at first.

However, we began to see individuals posting videos generated by Seedance, including a viral clip of Brad Pitt battling Tom Cruise. This raised the question: Is Hollywood in peril? Additionally, several Hollywood studios, including Netflix, sent ByteDance letters stating, “You cannot proceed with this; you’re essentially enabling users to create videos incorporating all our intellectual property and stars.” Initially, ByteDance remained silent but eventually responded, “We apologize for launching this without adequate safety measures; we’ll improve going forward.”

Kirsten: The timing is remarkable because I am currently editing a piece that Rebecca authored. Although it’s unrelated to Seedance, it touches on AI and filmmaking. So I’m going to give a future props to Rebecca for her timely insights on this subject. Rebecca, I know you have much to discuss, aside from the fact that Hollywood is upset. Is there more complexity to it?

Rebecca: Absolutely. I believe many individuals will leverage these tools to generate a wide range of content, resulting in an overwhelming influx. That will be intense. 

When discussing the use of AI video tools for creating films, advertisements, or various content, I sense a friction between producing a lot of low-quality material and potentially democratizing storytelling opportunities for those without resources or teams, who wish to share their narratives.

For instance, if you’re a small business wanting to create a shampoo advertisement — to be specific, there is a viral shampoo ad — or you sell coffee and wish to produce a promotional clip, [this] could equip you with the necessary tools. Is that detrimental? Or is it beneficial? Do we require more content in the world? There are various pathways to explore.

Kirsten: Is it detrimental, Anthony?

Anthony: From the creator’s perspective, I feel that the reaction to a lot of this low-quality material — quite frankly, much of it is of poor quality, and that trend will likely persist — will lead to a heightened value placed on authenticity. Thus, the opportunity for major creators might shift from “I have digital avatars of myself” to “No, I’m the genuine Mr. Beast, not a digital copy wandering around.”

Additionally, it’s significant that — indeed, every social platform experiences fluctuations — but OpenAI’s Sora, as I understand, witnessed rapid growth initially and has struggled to retain users more recently due to the lack of an authentic human connection in the user experience.

I also believe this will complicate the landscape for established creators trying to monetize […] and especially challenge new creators since an abundance of material will make it increasingly tough to stand out.

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